first in the house, a bill to help victims of superstorm sandy. house speaker john boehner nixed the vote in the last hours of 2012, drawing a firestorm of criticism. it comes up in the house in two parts- the first tomorrow, and the other mid-january. >> the next act will begin a couple of months from now probably in late february, early march, when we hit the debt ceiling and when the automatic spending cuts come into play again and either have to be replaced with other spending cuts, or again, kicked down the road. >> reporter: these are the same issues that snarled congress in the summer of 2011, and again during the fiscal cliff debate. there's little hope for a better outcome this year. president obama has promised not to negotiate with the new congress on raising the debt ceiling, but republicans are ready to use it to force major federal spending reforms and tame the national debt. right now, the u.s. owes $16 trillion, but some calculate our total liabilities much higher. and as congress jumps from small deal to small deal as they have be